With the improvement of people's consumption level and consumption quality, more and more people begin to buy Craft Beer equipment and participate in the brewing and sales of craft beer. The quality of craft beer mainly depends on equipment, raw materials and brewing technology. Choosing high quality and reliable craft beer equipment manufacturers is the premise of brewing high quality craft beer! How to choose high quality craft beer equipment?

Understand the division of beer equipment

Beer equipment can be divided into large-scale beer equipment, commercial beer equipment and home brewed beer equipment according to different output.

Large scale beer equipment - suitable for brewery. The certificate of brewery is very strict, and it takes a long time. And there are strict requirements for the design of site and plant. It takes a lot of money to open a brewery.

Commercial beer equipment - suitable for beer houses, bars, restaurants and other places. At present, commercial beer equipment is the most popular. Because at present, craft beer is a very popular beer, and many people join in this industry. Commercial beer equipment generally uses all-in-one machine, also known as a drag several, which is very suitable for friends who just started to make craft beer. It is popular because of its simple operation, small area and cost saving.

Home brewed beer equipment - for individuals. Some people are very fond of beer and like to brew it by themselves, and home brewing beer equipment meets the needs of this kind of people. Because of its small output, it can only satisfy the appetite of a few people, so the audience is also very limited.

There are some problems in craft beer equipment

For example, a set of two tanks and three vessels, the saccharification and boiling is 300 liters, with a total of four fermentation tanks, the price is relatively low, it is possible that many supporting equipment are not included in it, such as pulverizer, wine injector, etc., which need to be provided by themselves. The inner tank and outer shell of saccharification tank are too thin. The welding characteristics of thin stainless steel plate are that the welding is easy to deform, not tight, and easy to open, which makes saccharification and fermentation difficult and even the whole pot scrapped. The appearance of all-in-one machine is mostly plated with copper, which is good-looking for a period of time. It often encounters operation bottlenecks in the process of use, such as incomplete cleaning, easy to paste the pot when heating, easy to drip when cooling, cumbersome process, etc. It has something to do with its manufacturing technology and using principle. It has three functions in one pot. It is normal to encounter these problems. Saccharification is about six to nine hours at a time. It is suggested that you do not try the all-in-one machine easily. So when we buy equipment, we can't just look at the price, we must compare the configuration, whether it is genuine material, we must confirm with the manufacturer.And choose well-known craft brewery equipment manufacturers.

Equipment configuration of craft beer

Beer brewing equipment is generally divided into: 1, malt crushing system. 2. Saccharification system. 3. Fermented sake system. 4. Refrigeration system. 5. CIP system. 6. Control system, 7, filling equipment, and other auxiliary systems.

The crushing system is mainly composed of malt mill, malt storage and feeding equipment. Small equipment can only be equipped with double roll malt grinder.

Mash system is the brewing core of the whole set of equipment, which is responsible for the process of making malt into wort. There are four main process steps: saccharification filtration boiling sedimentation; The saccharification equipment needs saccharification tank, filter tank, boiling tank and cyclone tank to complete the above process in turn. The hot water boiler belongs to auxiliary equipment. At the same time, it needs a series of auxiliary equipment, including the said steam boiler for steam preparation, raw material crushing equipment, water treatment equipment, heat exchange equipment, detection and service equipment for saccharification, etc. These auxiliary equipment and saccharification equipment are used to realize wort preparation process according to certain technological process and requirements. When choosing to buy beer equipment, the size, type and configuration of the equipment are determined according to the site conditions, brewing process requirements and production batch requirements. At the same time, investment cost should be considered.

The fermentation system consists of several fermentation tanks. The inner tank and outer skin are all made of stainless steel. The fermentor has the functions of cooling and heat preservation. The fermentation section is used for beer fermentation. The control system controls the temperature of beer in fermentor according to the temperature set by fermentation. The refrigerant of refrigeration system is cooling medium. According to different types of beer fermentation process, the length of fermentation cycle of craft beer in fermentation section is also different, from less than ten days to more than half a year. It is generally believed that the quality of craft beer with long fermentation cycle is higher than that of craft beer with short fermentation cycle. According to the traditional method, beer fermentation process is divided into two stages: pre fermentation (also known as main fermentation) and post fermentation.

The main function of refrigeration system is to provide cold source for cooling wort and fermentation. The main equipment consists of: ice water tank (adding 30% ethylene glycol or edible alcohol to the tank to ensure no freezing at minus 6 ℃), cold water tank (large equipment and multi batch brewing need to be equipped, small equipment can not be used), refrigerator.

CIP system refers to the cleaning in place (CIP) method commonly used by breweries to clean and sterilize the equipment, that is, to clean and disinfect the beer equipment in a closed environment without removing the equipment parts or pipe fittings. The larger the equipment, the higher the requirement of cleaning equipment. Configure CIP equipment according to equipment size and requirements.

Control system mainly refers to the electronic control, semi-automatic and automatic control of each system. Control of saccharification system, fermentation system, refrigeration system, etc. The control of small equipment is relatively simple and the price is relatively cheap. The control requirements of large equipment are higher, the automation level and complexity are higher, and the cost is also high.

Filling system equipment mainly refers to the follow-up treatment and packaging of beer fermented liquor. Simple bottle filling machine, barrel filling machine and barrel washing machine; High automation bottle filling machine and can filling equipment. And filter equipment, packaging equipment, etc. Large factories need high concentration dilution equipment, etc.

Auxiliary equipment generally refers to equipment other than the above systems. If steam boiler provides steam system. Water treatment equipment for brewing water. And gas system and other supporting equipment.

Finally, be sure to communicate with the manufacturer about the brewing equipment you need

You need to determine your daily output. If you need 500L craft beer equipment, do you need to saccharify 500L or produce 500L every day, or produce two batches of 500L every day, you must determine the daily output, so as to facilitate the manufacturer to recommend the model.

1.When to use, the layout of the site, you can draw a plan to determine the size of the equipment.

2.What kind of customers you are targeting, what kind of beer you need to brew, and how many kinds of beer you need to brew.

3.It's better to equip all the equipment from one manufacturer, in case it's inconvenient to use in the future, and the gain is not worth the loss. We must plan for the long term.

4.Choose the best craft beer equipment for you and start your craft beer journey.